Rush-Hour Parking Ban Irks De Soto Avenue Residents

The city of Los Angeles began enforcing controversial rush-hour parking restrictions Thursday along De Soto Avenue in the West San Fernando Valley.

The restrictions add an extra southbound lane to De Soto during the morning rush hour and an extra northbound lane during the evening rush. They were announced in August by Mayor Tom Bradley as part of a citywide traffic improvement program.

Mayoral aides hailed the restrictions as an inexpensive way to improve traffic flow, but local residents loudly criticized it for taking away their parking places.

City transportation officials met with angry residents in September but refused to back down. Instead, they temporarily covered most of the signs, creating a grace period that ended Thursday. They also reduced the length of the evening parking bans on most of the east side of the avenue from four hours to three.

But some residents remain unsatisfied.

“We lost big,” said resident Harry Oblas, who lives in an apartment building that gives him only one parking space for his two vehicles. He said he plans to pay to put a pickup truck in storage, since he can no longer park it on the street.

The city “didn’t think of the people who are living here,” Oblas said. “They just said we have to change our life style. Well, how do you do that?”

City officials--including the mayor’s transportation coordinator, William E. Bicker--have said the restrictions in the West Valley and elsewhere are important steps to reduce traffic congestion that is a bane to most Los Angeles commuters.

Growth in the city has prompted De Soto Avenue resident Richard Kasso and his family to plan a move to Northern California. The Kassos have lived in their Canoga Park home for 21 years, he said.

“The population growth here isn’t being checked,” Kasso said, adding that “the street issue kind of brought it to a head.”

Some cars were ticketed and even towed Thursday morning. Tom Swire, the city’s transportation engineer for the West Valley, said tickets would be written throughout the area on Friday.

On Nov. 18, city workers distributed fliers warning that the grace period would end Dec. 1, said Arsen Mansagarian, associate transportation engineer.

The parking restrictions are as follows:

On the west side of the street, from 6 to 9:30 a.m. between Lassen Street and an alley just north of Devonshire Street; from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. between Lassen and Nordhoff streets, a non-residential area; and from 7 to 9:30 a.m. between Nordhoff Street and Victory Boulevard.

On the east side of De Soto, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. between Victory Boulevard and Gresham Street; from 3 to 7 p.m. between Nordhoff and Lassen streets; and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. between Lassen Street and the alley just north of Devonshire Street.